Mental Health Mondays

 Introducing Mental Health Monday! On every even Monday, I will post about great ways to improve mental health and activities you can do from the comfort of your home, dorm room, etc. 

Image credit: Planstreet

Taking care of yourself is essential for being happy and creating happiness around you. Having great mental health not only benefits you but others around you. When others see that you are taking steps in the right direction, they will follow to do the same. 

As a college athlete, I found it difficult to find things to do that would benefit my mental health. I would often times just sit in my room in silence thinking that would help improve my mental health. Little did I know that it would actually worsen it. 

I found tips and tricks that helped me ease my mind of the things that would get me down. I am here to help supply those strategies. I will be providing biweekly games, activities, and things of that sort. This is an effort to help ease your mind and create a safe space/getaway space. 

This week I want to introduce the idea of adult coloring. Coloring has allowed me to just relax and focus on the beautiful pictures that I am creating. Being able to choose what colors to use and being in control of making something unique to myself has really helped my mental health. 

You can get really creative when doing these coloring pages. This is your time to be as creative as you want, include what you need to make it your own. You can add quotes around it, specials drawings to it. This is the opportunity to express yourself through something that you could be keeping private. 

Although you are not required to keep it private, you can also upload it to any social media site showing what you did. This can be a way for you show other people your strategies, or even just for some self- gloating. 

Adult coloring pages can be found by just doing a quick search on Google. You can search easy ones, medium ones, or hard ones. I usually do medium ones because I like to complete activities in one sitting. I do sometimes use the hard ones if I'm wanting to do one for hours or to really get my mind off things. 

There are so many benefits that come from adult coloring. One that I have already stated is creativity! This allows you so show who you are through colors and the way you color your image. This is also a great way to relieve stress as I previously mentioned. The calmness of coloring allows you to reduce your stress a significant amount!

Creating time for yourself is a crucial part in improving mental health. You can find anytime to color. As an athlete it may seem like your have no time to do anything. You feel as if all you have time for is school and your sport. Feeling like you don't have time for friends family or any extra activities is something that is felt throughout almost every athlete. I am here to say that taking time to yourself will help not only with your mental health but also your time management. 

I tried any and all things to create better time management skills. I found myself feeling lost and not knowing anything else but school and softball. But one day I found time to just sit back and color. After that time it was so beneficial to not only my mental health but improved my game of softball. 

On the way to away games, if I felt anxious or stressed out, I would whip out a coloring page and crayons and just color. Yes, it was difficult to color on a bumpy bus, but just having time to myself was amazing. 

If you don't have constant access to a printer, you can buy a book filled with coloring pages. You can find these at any store or an online website like Amazon. Crayons are also very easy to find in the same places. Prices vary on the coloring pages. If you get a fancy one the are a bit more costly but if you want to keep it simple, there are affordable ones out there. Crayons are very affordable. I bought Crayola crayons at dollar general for .50 cents!

Image credit: Amazon

Image credit: Shop Crayola

One thing I like to do with coloring is color a picture based on the month. With each month there is normally a major holiday. So for this month (October), I colored in a Halloween picture. It is so fun being able to color to reduce stress while also getting into the holiday spirit! My favorite holiday to color pictures is obviously Christmas. Yes, I know that it is only October, but I am so excited for the month of December!

I would love to hear if anyone else out there uses coloring to reduce their stress and improve their mental health. It honestly could be any kind of art. For example: painting, drawing, and poetry. You can improve your mental health in so many ways. If you want more advice or strategies check out Hillside Wellness Center's blog! Let me know what ways coloring has improved your mental health!

Why Mental Health is Important for Student Athletes

 Mental Health within athletes is a fast growing concern. Being a student athlete, I have struggled with mental health issues. It is so common with student athletes because we all have this immense amount of pressure constantly on us. 

This pressure looks like having good grades, performing well on the field, court, course, and balancing a social life. It is very hard to keep up with these things trying to juggle everything at the same time. 

I care so deeply about the mental health of athletes because I have battled these issues myself. I became depressed and anxious all the time because I constantly thought that I needed to prove myself to everyone around me. I thought my identity was through my success on the softball field. I later found out that I am so much more than the sport I play. 

I had let a coach ruin the sport I once loved. I hated the game of softball and I never thought that I could hate a sport that I have dedicated my life to. Taking a step back and making decisions that improved my mental health was one of my greatest accomplishments
. 

I am here to talk about how athletes are so much more than their sport. Athletes are so important to the ones around them and are cared about more than they know. They also do not need the approval from those around them on whether or not they are valued.  

I want to raise awareness about the awful stigmas that surround student athletes and their mental health. I want to show that they are not weak for wanting to seek help in bettering themselves.